On our third day in Mumbai, we had the opportunity to visit the P&G India office. It was a great opportunity to meet the team, see the office, and learn about P&G’s marketing practices in India. The team described a few product launches and what they learned from each of them. My biggest takeaway was the importance of understanding the Indian consumer. For each product launch, the P&G team spent time talking to the consumer and understanding the root challenge that the product needed to address. Many popular brands sold in the US, like Tide and Gillette, were altered to meet the needs of the Indian consumer before going to market in India. Changes in packaging, marketing campaigns, and even the product itself were made to resonate with the Indian consumer base. These product launches demonstrated that what works in the US may not translate to a different market.
The other key takeaway I had from this visit was how marketing campaigns vary depending on the product and the culture surrounding the use of the product. For example, P&G showed us Tide television ads aired in India that were upbeat, fun, and demonstrated the effectiveness of the product. These ads focused on the use of the product and didn’t need to address any cultural barriers. Comparatively, the team also described the Whisper marketing campaign, which had a large educational component. To effectively reach their consumer, P&G visited schools and brought girls and their moms together to discuss the changes that happen during adolescence. Because periods can be a taboo subject, P&G needed to create a broader conversation to encourage more girls to use Whisper sanitary pads. It was a fascinating glimpse into how broader culture impacts marketing campaigns.
Overall, I really enjoyed learning about P&G’s product launches and marketing campaigns in India. It was a great demonstration of the importance of understanding the consumer and made me even more excited to pursue a career in consumer insights.
This article is part of the series describing the Marketing Centers’ International Trip to India in January 2020. The international trip is the culmination of a two-credit course with the overall learning objective of expanding student knowledge of marketing and other facets of running a multi-national brand in high interest markets beyond the U.S. While on site we visit the marketing offices of several companies and receive engaging case studies on the local consumer, company operations and the challenges of ‘local’ marketing outside the U.S. Students walk away from the trip with a different perspective that prepares them further for working in global marketing and general management.
The 2020 course and international trip focused primarily on US based multi-national companies in India.
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